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A collection of stories from a variety of news organizations. Click here to find all of Richard's news stories.

Ideastream Public Media •

A Northeast Ohio native explores his family's relationship with police power and race

Growing up in the Cleveland suburbs, Wilbert Cooper was a member of a police family. Both his parents are retired police officers, his sister is a cop, and there's been an officer in his family going back as far as 1950. The Strongsville native chose not to follow in their footsteps, becoming a writer instead. But Cooper says he'd heard stories of his family members in the line of duty, and their involvement with The Black Shield, an organization of Black police officers in Cleveland that shapes...
Ideastream Public Media •

Cleveland youth give teen takeovers a makeover

On a Sunday afternoon, the sounds of young people having fun echoed outside Rocket Arena in Downtown Cleveland, in what was billed as a "teen takeover."The space was filled with activities for teenagers: a DJ playing music over loudspeakers, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, a gaming truck, food trucks and booths with information from local mental health and community safety nonprofits.The event looked far different from the popular image of teen takeovers — large gatherings of teens in parks, pub...
Ideastream Public Media •

Called to serve, but not welcome to stay: Why this Medina woman pursued priesthood

Catholicism is on the rise nationwide, as well as in Ohio. Baptisms in the Cleveland diocese — a region encapsulating a number of counties in Northeast Ohio — have risen by 198% since 2020.But as the Church attracts more new members, it is still dealing with a priest shortage. The number of Catholic priests dropped by 40% between 1970 and 2024. However, some religious organizations are trying to fill the gaps by making women priests, even as the institutional Church forbids women from serving in...
Ideastream Public Media •

Meet the Cleveland brothers who are cleaning their communities one street at a time

The corner of St. Clair and Eddy Road in Cleveland’s Forest Hills neighborhood is a pretty busy intersection where cars speed past. There’s also trash everywhere — on the sidewalks, in the street gutters and especially in nearby vacant lots. Fortunately, there’s a group of brothers willing to do something about it.On a recent afternoon, brothers Drevian Arrington and Andre Willis used trash pickers and their own gloved hands to pick up old receipts, snack food wrappers and plastic bottles, and p...
Ideastream Public Media •

A therapy dog and her owner combat loneliness in Medina County

By some measures, people in the U.S. are lonelier than ever.Over half of the nation's adults report feeling emotionally disconnected or isolated from others, according to a 2025 survey from the American Psychological Association. The U.S. Surgeon General has called loneliness “a national epidemic” with health risks as damaging as smoking nearly 15 cigarettes a day.In Medina County, Lisa Fellows and her therapy dog, Pippa, are fighting that trend one visit at a time.The duo appears throughout Med...
Ideastream Public Media •

Ohio farmers' property taxes have risen tenfold since 2005, leading some to call for relief

Bill Patterson sweeps up after some turkeys and pigs he keeps in a barn at Patterson Fruit Farms in Chesterland — a Northeast Ohio institution most famous for its apples and fall pumpkin displays.Patterson, a sixth-generation farmer and president of the Ohio Farm Bureau, says farming has never been easy. But current financial pressures are making the profession particularly tough.“When the tariffs came into place, there's just this new reality for agriculture that the expenses spiked,” Patterson...
Ideastream Public Media •

'He lived with us until he died.' Medina museum highlights local Underground Railroad ties

At the corner of Blake and Prospect in Downtown Medina sits the McDowell-Phillips House Museum. This historic home-turned-museum belonged to Elizabeth McDowell, the daughter of H.G. Blake, a 19th century Medina lawyer and member of the Ohio House of Representatives.The Medina County Historical Society spent over $700,000 to buy and restore the house in 2019. Shortly thereafter, while cleaning out the attic, Brian Feron, president of the Medina County Historical Society, says he and his team foun...
Ideastream Public Media •

Cleveland school's annual fair brings the fun while helping families with mental health

Bolton Elementary School’s annual community health fair has all the amenities you’d expect at a summer festival. In the parking lot, a DJ plays music over the loudspeaker. People are waiting in long lines at food trucks. Some kids are begging their parents to get them ice cream, while others jump around in a bouncy house.But this event in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood — now in its fifth year — has a purpose that goes beyond warm weather frivolity.“I think that what this has become is really a...
Ideastream Public Media •

This Cleveland artist turned her grandmother’s house into a center for arts entrepreneurship

Jada Renee always knew she wanted to be a professional artist, but she didn’t have a blueprint. Things started to come together for Renee’s artistic vision once she found out her family was selling her grandmother’s home in 2020. She wanted to keep the house in the family, so she worked with her business partner to buy it.“I had to basically make a proposal to get the property,” Renee says. “[I] brought my real estate mentor at the time to come over here and assist me with the presentation. It w...
Ideastream Public Media •

Cleveland is home to one of the nation's largest crisis nurseries. The model is hard to replicate

On a Friday afternoon, kids are romping outside on the playground at Providence House, a crisis nursery in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood. A couple of kids rev their toy cars by pulling backward, as they prepare for a race. The others watch and offer advice.Providence House is a crisis nursery — one of a few nationwide that provide necessities for children and families struggling economically, mentally or physically.“A crisis nursery is not foster care,” says Ashley Stock, the director...
Ideastream Public Media •

Shifting patterns in pet adoptions leave Northeast Ohio animal shelters at capacity

Pet shelters and animal adoption agencies across the country have been at or near capacity since the COVID-19 pandemic, and in Northeast Ohio many facilities report having more animals than new families to adopt them.Shelters and humane societies often see a cycle in adoption patterns, said Kate Lumsden, shelter coordinator at the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Seville.“In the summer, you'll see a lot of kittens get adopted because it's kitten season and...
Ideastream Public Media •

This Northeast Ohio company sends Arabic books to kids to connect them to culture, language

Arab-American populations are among the fastest-growing in the U.S., and Ohio has more than doubled its Arab-American population between 2000 and 2022. However, mainstream anti-Arab sentiment can be isolating for many young Arab-Americans.In part to combat negative stereotypes and isolation, media producer Rafa Saab and engineer Rania Khalaf co-founded ArabiKids, a subscription service that delivers children's books in Arabic to U.S. families. The company started in Boston, but Saab now runs the...
Ideastream Public Media •

From frustration to reimagining: Clevelanders grapple with the city's environmental future

Cleveland lawmakers are seeking new ways to address the city's environmental issues after losing more than $3 million in lead remediation funds. The state is revoking $3.3 million given to the city to address lead poisoning, as part of the Ohio Department of Development’s Lead Safe Ohio Program.Though the city is making slow progress, Cleveland has some of the highest rates of lead poisoning in children. The rate dropped to a new low of 14.5% in 2025, but that’s still much higher than the nation...
Ideastream Public Media •

Northeast Ohio’s aging population is getting lonelier. Fun and games can help

It’s 10 a.m. on a Friday, and the gym inside Friendly House in Mansfield is buzzing as a dozen or so seniors laugh and follow the steps to the Electric Slide.This event is a favorite offering from the iConnect program, which seeks to reduce isolation and loneliness among people over 55.Tending to participants' needs and trying out an occasional step of her own is Deborah Wherry Bey, the program's leader.“We do technology, book clubs, we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we went to Motown,...
Ideastream Public Media •

Amid funding scares, NASA Glenn is developing 'gas stations' for the moon and Mars

NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a new technology to use ice on the moon and Mars to make fuel for space travel — increasing the potential distance and length of future expeditions.“Our wider goal is to develop the technologies needed for NASA's future missions,” said Evan Racine, an aerospace engineer and project manager at NASA Glenn.To explain the potential benefits to space travel of the fuel technology, called CryoFill, Racine uses the analogy of a long road trip from Cleveland to L...
Ideastream Public Media •

A massive crack in frozen Lake Erie means no more ice walks for Clevelanders

Northeast Ohio has been under a deep freeze since January. Cleveland, specifically, didn’t see temperatures over freezing for 18 days in January and early February — the longest such streak since the winter of 2000 and 2001. Those temperatures caused 95% of the surface of Lake Erie to freeze.While experts warn that walking on the ice is dangerous under any circumstances, the extensive ice coverage has drawn some adventurous Northeast Ohioans to explore the surface of the lake on foot.At Clevelan...
Ideastream Public Media •

Cleveland's Gordon Park offers a rare chance for better East Side lakefront access, students say

Gordon Park on Cleveland's East Side — part of Cleveland Metroparks' Lakefront Reservation — offers a long list of amenities spread across its 122 lakefront acres. There are boat ramps, walking trails, tennis courts and a picnic lawn.But ever since Interstate 90 was built in the 1950s, East Siders have had a hard time accessing the park, and Lake Erie in general.Cleveland Metroparks has been working on solutions to the problem for several years. And they’ve recently gotten some help from student...
Ideastream Public Media •

'It can be brutal': Ohio's rural homeless shelters brace for a cold winter

Inside the laundry room at Homeward Bound, a homeless shelter in Wooster, a volunteer folds the latest batch of bedding, while a washing machine spins a sudsy load."We do a lot of laundry as you can imagine. We provide all the bedding and the shower and towels and stuff like that," says Brandon Barnes, the shelter's executive director.Homeward Bound opened earlier this year and can accommodate up to 44 people at a time.Wayne County doesn't have as many homeless people as more urban counties like...
Ideastream Public Media •

This 90-year old runner from North Olmsted won't slow down

When she was growing up, Marilyn Olsen of North Olmsted says girls didn’t play sports. She herself was a party girl, preferring dancing to any organized exercise.“When I got out of high school, it was the bars or the ballrooms,” Olsen said. “Never, never anything athletic, but the dancing was good.”That changed when she was 45. A coworker recommended that Olsen join her for a race, and from there she fell in love with the sport of running. She ended up placing third in her first 5K.“I tried it a...
Ideastream Public Media •

Lorain County’s Black girls struggle mentally. Experts look for answers

This story came from Ideastream Public Media’s engaged journalism team, as part of our commitment to telling stories with people and communities across Northeast Ohio.On a recent Saturday morning, a conference at Lorain County Community College kicked off the county's new chapter of Black Girl Rising, a nonprofit helping Black girls build confidence.Girls and teenagers from across the county sat together at tables, listening intently as speakers and panelists discuss a topic of growing importanc...
Ideastream Public Media •

Mansfield's 'Pothole Haters' aim to leave no road unpaved

Eric Miller says Mansfield has some of the best roads in the state. But it wasn’t always like this.“Our streets were in deplorable condition,” Miller said. “They were falling apart, most of the streets were in terrible shape, and we just needed to do something about it.”Back in the 1980s, Miller — a lawyer — started a group called the Committee for Better Streets, dedicated to fixing the streets for everyone.The idea, he says, was this: “How can you, as a modern-day citizen, do something that he...
Ideastream Public Media •

‘I speak lead': Through fungi and stories, Cleveland advocates tackle environmental justice

Robin Brown’s former home sits on the corner of East 116th and Luke Avenue, in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Today, the home is abandoned; porch floorboards are torn up, paint chips are peeling off the side of the home, and windows are broken.However, this vacant home ended up changing Brown’s life in a way she would’ve never expected. Brown says she was driving to pick up her daughter from daycare when she received a phone call from her daughter’s physician with some startling news.“...
Ideastream Public Media •

'It's not gonna stop.' Cleveland food pantry vows to continue despite federal funding cuts

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway neighborhood distributes fresh produce through the Greater Cleveland Food Bank’s Mobile Pantry Program, which served more than 4,000 families last year.Vidorian Massingale, affectionately known as Chef Vi, is the executive chef for the church’s mobile pantry. Before this job, she was working in food service in schools, but wanted a career that could help people more directly.“I love working here,” Massingale said. “Everybody is just so...
Ideastream Public Media •

Despite Cleveland's unpredictable weather, these beekeepers hope to keep the hive alive

It’s a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon so, naturally, I’m spending the day outside. But I’m not relaxing or tanning — today, I’m an honorary beekeeper.I'm joining Danie White for a hive drop, where we’re moving bees from a temporary hive to a more permanent structure. White is helping Lexxus Davis, her friend and fellow beekeeper, acclimate the bees to a new hive in Davis’ garden in Cleveland's Central neighborhood. We’re all decked out in thick, white beekeeping suits to protect ourselves fro...
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